Most consumer equipment, especially electronics, and much commercial equipment comes carefully packaged in rigid foam or other sturdy and form-fitting packaging material designed to cushion and hold the equipment firmly within an outer box. Where the equipment is mass produced and automatically packaged, custom-formed packing inserts are the norm. Where economies of scale cannot justify the costs of design, tooling, and production of specialized inserts, other packing materials are desired. The desire for a flexible and inexpensive packing material is particularly relevant to the repair and reconditioning industry. In particular, substantially sized equipment such as printers, television sets, and similar bulky items.
In addition to custom-fitting inserts, so-called packing “peanuts” or “shells” are sometimes used. Such loose packing typically comprises foam or cellulose pellets that are poured around equipment once placed in the outer box. Drawbacks include the shifting of the pellets during handling of the box and the danger of small particles or fibers separating from the pellets and infiltrating the equipment. Even when the equipment is wrapped in plastic, the tiny fibers and particles from pellets are messy and can infiltrate the equipment during unpacking.
For small to medium size items, a series of airbags are offered as packing material by companies such as Polyair Inter Pack, Inc. Polyair's Airspace Pillow Packaging System™ is typical in comprising a series of rectangular airbags of thin plastic that are initially held together along perforated edges. When packing equipment or small items, the requisite number of airbags are tom off and packed around the shipped items. Among disadvantages are the inability to tightly pack bulky items both because the airbags are made of easily broken thin membranes and because it is difficult to tightly pack airbags that are already inflated. This disadvantage is particularly likely to occur near the lower portions of outer boxes since fingers and hands become blocked by the airbags themselves. A product brochure with pictorial and text explanations are found at www.polyair.com.
It would be desirable to have inexpensive, flexible, non-contaminating and easily installed inner packaging material.
One embodiment of the invention is an air bladder packaging system for packing an item having sides in an outer box having walls wherein a space exists between a side and a wall, such packaging system comprising: an inflatable center body for placement proximate to one surface of the item; a plurality of inflatable fingers attached to the center body and having a length, at least a portion of the length being designed for placement along a side of the item in the space between the side and a wall of the outer box; and a valve through which compressed gas may be inserted into the air bladder; wherein, once sufficient gas is inserted, a portion of the finger spans the space between the side of the item and the wall of the box.
Another embodiment of the invention is a process for packing an item having sides in an outer box having walls, comprising: placing a center body of an air bladder proximate to a surface of the item; positioning at least a portion of a finger of the air bladder along a side of the item in the space between the side and a wall of the outer box; and inflating the finger sufficiently to span the space between the side and the wall.